The U.K. documentary Bodysong is the visual equivalent of Radiohead’s last few records: A Guardian review described the film as a “free-form collage of images” that “strive to evoke a poetry of the human body with ideas about birth, death, sex, violence, and dreams.” Naturally, Jonny Greenwood — Radiohead’s lead guitarist and sound manipulator of its chaos theories — scores Bodysong with instrumentals perfectly encapsulating its hodgepodge style.
Alarmed squawks from saxophones and trumpets drive the fussy free jazz of “Splitter,” short-circuiting electronic sparks and guest Colin Greenwood’s bass blotches perforate the ominous “24 Hour Charleston,” and “Bode Radio/Glass Light/Broken Hearts” jumps seamlessly from Enoesque synth ambiance to strings resembling a tragic silent-film score. With no lyrics distracting from the music, Bodysong resembles a purer form of Kid A in the way its sparse structures provoke intense visceral reactions. Like every successful score, Bodysong intrigues even outside of the theater.
This article appears in Feb 25 – Mar 2, 2004.